(Ordinations to the Priesthood - Ronald David Keel and Carol Webb Sanford)
In Over Your Head
By
The Very Rev. Terry White,
Dean
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Isaiah 6:1-8
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Psalm 132:8-18
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1 Peter 5:1-4
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John 6:35-38
(Readings link to the Oremus Bible Browser)
Noted theologian Jeff Foxworthy of You Might Be a Redneck fame, writes, “You might be a redneck if you think a woman who is ‘out of your league’ bowls on a different night.”
That phrase “out of your league” is almost always meant to be a put down. When used in dating circles, it means don’t even ask him or her out, for rejection is certain. When used in a conversation about a job opening, it means you are not qualified. When used in conversation about the performance arts or sports, it means you do not have the ability.
“Out of your league.” “In over your head.” This stuff that recurring nightmares are made of, is something most of us share in common. Thus, there is good news in this morning’s first reading for all of us who have known such moments.
The prophet Isaiah, as he found himself among the members of the divine court, as the angels announce God’s holy and glorious reality, may well have thought: “What am I doing here? Am I ever in over my head, out of my league!”
In that moment before the Creator of All, Isaiah becomes aware of the reality that he is a creature. His sins stick out like an All-Star on the Royals. Isaiah laments that, because of his sinfulness before the One who is all Holiness, he is surely doomed.
While the seraphs cover their eyes because they dare not look upon the Lord, Isaiah stands gawking. As the seraphs cover their nakedness with two wings, Isaiah is aware of how his entire being is laid bare before the GREAT I AM. Isaiah sees the repository of his sinfulness and frailty as being his mouth. The seraph therefore does not cleanse his eyes or vest him in modest attire. Rather, the divine messenger touches a coal to his lips and pronounces absolution. Isaiah’s guilt is removed and his sin forgiven.
And in that moment, as Divine Grace envelopes him, Isaiah is no longer in the wrong place, he is no longer in over his head. Now he belongs in this scene.
He seems to overhear a question the Lord Almighty asks of those in the divine court, “Whom shall I send, who will go for us?” Yahweh is not asking for a volunteer to step forward for a dangerous mission like in those old war movies, but the Lord is asking for counsel.
Yet Isaiah volunteers anyway. You can paint your own picture of this. Perhaps he steps forward with confidence and a holy swagger, certain that now he is up to the task. Or perhaps like a second grader who knows the answer to the question the teacher just asked, his hand shoots into the air and he jumps up and down trying to the Almighty’s attention, whining, “Please, please, pick me! I’ll go, I really want to go!”
As this scene comes to an end, the meaning of the forgiveness of is made clear. Though Isaiah now belongs to the heavenly court, he is not content to stay there. He offers himself as a divine envoy without even knowing the specifics of the mission. (Richard Carlson, New Proclamation, Year C, 2004, pg. 95).
My guess is that all of us can relate to some portion of that Isaiah story. From asking ourselves “Am I in over my head?”, to feeling unqualified for an immense task, or being certain that we are unworthy of sacred work, we have experienced circumstances when our own resources and cleverness, qualifications and imagination fell far short of what was actually needed.
But we have also known those instances when God’s amazing grace and unconditional forgiveness have cleansed us profoundly, and the desire to serve has led us into places we had not planned to visit anytime soon. And rather than feel in such times that we are in over our head, we find ourselves intensely aware of God filling us and leading us. Such are the mysterious ways of God.
In a few moments that Isaiah story will be played out here. On the one hand, the questions the bishop asks Ron and Carol can sound impossible to fulfill. Their affirmative responses might be construed as either naivetι, or arrogance, or early signs of decreasing mental capacity. How can any one person do all that is asked? The answered is: no one can.
So on the other hand, that is why those called and ordained as deacon, priest, and bishop are surrounded by family, friends, parishioners, and colleagues, literally surrounded for the laying-on-of-hands. Most of all, those to be ordained continue to be surrounded by the power of the Holy Spirit and the never-ending grace of God. In the beginning of this liturgy all of us affirmed that it is our will that Ron and Carol be ordained. That means we pledge our support and prayers, love and forgiveness even as we ask for theirs as we carry out our work together as baptized people in the Body of Christ.
For years, I spent many evenings between 10 and 10:30 p.m. with the team of Ron and Carol. WMAQ-TV Chicago featured Ron Magers and Carol Marin as the 10 p.m. news anchors. They were well-respected broadcasters in Chicago who received some national attention in May 1997, when within three weeks of each other, both left WMAQ when station management, seeking to boost sagging ratings, signed a certain journalist to present nightly news commentary. That journalist was Jerry Springer, the infamous talk show host. Critics acclaimed that Ron and Carol had taken the high road, refusing to transform a news broadcast into entertainment or something worse. One is reported to have said, “My vocation is to be a broadcast journalist. That is my calling. I must be true to that.”
My sister and brother, you will at times feel pressed to reduce our common worship, teaching, outreach, and proclamation to either mere entertainment or self-righteous poppycock. In your priestly vocation you will know the touch of burning coals and they will at times burn more than your lips. In such moments, fortified by a healthy dose of humility, know that being true to your vocation will land you in some uncomfortable places where you can only rely on God’s grace. Peter’s admonition to be not domineering but an example, means to wear your authority lightly without losing sight of Christ’s high priesthood which leads and sustains you.
You are not called to be successful priests, you are called to be faithful priests. I pray that not too far down the road you will feel that you are in over your head. In that moment you will be blessed, because it is in those times, when we are acutely aware of our weaknesses, that God most perfectly works in us.
Ron and Carol: I thank you for the high privilege to preach at your ordination to the Sacred Priesthood. But I must confess that I am preaching to myself first. Rather than leave you with a check-list of how to be the perfect priest, I have asked the Church Pension Fund to send you that list in a few weeks. Instead, I leave you with a legend that admittedly borders on precious piety, but has more than once helped me in difficult times to refocus.
As Christianity spread throughout the inhabited world and no longer needed to live literally underground, parish churches began to be built, and alongside them burial places for the faithful. The directions were very clear: the church building was to be oriented so that the door to the nave was at the west end, and the altar was at the east end, for from the east Christ would return.
Churchyard cemeteries were also laid out so that bodies were placed in the ground with the head to the west, so that, on the Last Day, at the sound of the archangel’s trumpet, the dead would sit up facing east and behold the Lord Christ coming again in glorious majesty.
But there is an exception to this direction. Priests were buried with their heads toward the east. And at the sound of the archangel’s trumpet, they would sit up and behold their salvation, not in the face of Christ, but reflected in the eyes on the people they served.
You know that grace has saved you. Nevertheless, serve those who call and love and trust you with such passion and healthy commitment that it as if your soul depended upon it. Revel in those opportunities to be in over your head, for in such times you will know the difference between doing the work of a priest, and being a priest. May you always be a priest.